Tags:
Journalism of Courage
New media rules the showbiz roost now. We have come a long way from the time when it had access only to print media.
It was when I was doing a course in journalism in 1991 that computers first came into the picture. Since it happened almost towards the end of the course,the college hurriedly introduced a special class to teach this new medium of communication. We took to the keyboard and mouse with great curiosity. What started off as a fun thing back then turned out to be a huge blessing in the course of my nearly two-decade long career. From tools to spell-check,cut,paste and edit copy,the computer could perform anything and everything you wanted.
With social networking sites such as Facebook,YouTube and the like,everything good,bad and ugly is easily accessible. One of my ex-colleagues confessed that she was so addicted to Facebook that everyday shed spend two hours on the site sending messages but mostly checking out others profiles. Thankfully,better sense prevailed with her deleting her profile from the account. Its not worth it, she said dismissively. Here I must confess that though I have a Facebook account,I rarely log into it. I havent yet got the hang ot it. My friends chide me for shying away from the networking site and not keeping up with the times!
When it comes to new media,I must also mention the electronic media,the bane of print media journalists. At press conferences,its the electronic media that gets preferential treatment over their print brethren. With microphones thrust into the faces of the celebrities and cameras whirring around them,I wonder how they manage to stand straight. The jostling and shoving can rival what you see at peak hours at railway stations. The best part is,celebs dont mind it,in fact they are as eager to give bytes to the channels and see their mugs on camera.
If anything,new forms of media have only democratised the connect between scribes,stars and fans.
